Trust is Earned
by I am a Night Fury
Summary: One small change can have lasting consequences. When finding the Night Fury, he isn't let off the hook so easily. But a Night Fury's venom isn't like other dragons, they do need to keep their race alive somehow after all. Hiccup finds out the hard way... Transformation fic with my own twist, find out inside!
1. Trust is Earned

**AN: I'm not dead! Work on 'A New Beginning' is still ongoing, but I'm struggling with with the next chapter. ****But I have managed to cobble together a few chapters for this story, 'Trust is Earned' is some spare time. Thanks for all the faves, follows and reviews for 'A New Beginning' so far! I will be returning to it!**

**It is to be a transformation fic, as they are my favourites, but I noticed something that most transformation based fics have in common: Its all done in the shadows, nobody knows what has happened until someone finds out, then they try to kill Hiccup. So I've decided to do my own version with a twist, where everybody knows about the change, but they dont know how to react.**

******For those who do not understand how my mind works:**

"Human talking"

'Human thinking'

**"Dragon talking"**

**'Dragon thinking'**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD. If I did, we would all be dressing up as dragons.**

* * *

This is berk. Its twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death, located solidly in the meridian of misery. In a word, study. The village has been here for several generations but every building is new. We have hunting, fishing and a charming view of the sunsets.

The only problems are the pests. Some places have mosquitoes of mice. We have something slightly more serious… Dragons.

These oversized fire-breathing reptiles have a tendency to visit our village during the night every week or so and announce their presence with loud roars, fireballs and stolen sheep. They especially like to take the sheep, although they will take whatever food they can, as proven by the events last night.

That's where us Vikings come in.

We don't like it.

At all.

So we decided to stop them in the only way that vikings know how, by poking it hard with an extremely sharp object, until it stops moving

Yes, we try to kill them.

Me, my name is Hiccup. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. Great name isn't it. But its not the worst! Parents believe that a horrible name will scare off trolls and gnomes. I am the heir to the tribe, but you wouldn't expect it. Where other vikings have an IQ relative to their age, but brawn and brute strength to beat something with, I don't. I am the equivalent of a twig. A very clumsy, weak, but intelligent twig!

Because of this I am effectively an outcast among the tribe, although my mentor in the forge - Gobber - is like a second father to me (because my first is too busy running the tribe or fighting dragons to keep me in check).

I have always wanted to prove myself by killing a dragon, I cant use any weapons effectively so I use my incredible mind to invent something that can do it for me. My main problem is that its not easy to kill a dragon.

A Terrible Terror is the easiest to get alone, but it is generally not worth going after. This thing is tiny, about the size of a cat but is swift and agile. On its own it isn't a threat, but they have a tendency to go around in packs of twenty or so. Their fires will burn for a long time after they shoot at you.

A Grunckle is tough, bringing one of those down will get me noticed. If you ever see a warty flying boulder, you know what it is. Its undersized wings flap so fast to keep it in the air that all you see is a blur. Instead of breathing a stream of fire at you it drops a blob of molten rock on your face that will burn a hole in you pretty quick.

A Deadly Nadder will definitely get me a date, this two-legged lizard has amazingly beautiful scales, and is dangerous from both front and behind. You see, it has the hottest fire we know of, so it can burn through almost anything in seconds, and its tail is covered in poisonous spikes that it can launch at you at will.

A Hideous Zippleback is exotic, it has a unique way of killing you. It has two heads, one that breathes out an extremely flammable gas, and another head that creates a spark to ignite it. It is nearly impossible to sneak up on one of these huge creatures. It is also extremely poisonous. A bite has to be treated immediately if you want to survive, and even that is questionable.

Only the best go after a Monstrous Nightmare. Named because after encountering one people can have many a sleepless night afterwards. This type of deadly dragon has got a nasty habit of setting itself on fire. It also has a special, sticky fire that will keep eating its way through anything for a while after its gone.

The most prized dragon of all though, is the Night Fury. This dragon has never been seen, but it is still the most feared of all. It never steals food, but it never misses. The moment you hear the rising screech of its impending arrival you instantly find cover from its explosive plasma shots. One of those shots can destroy a study building or catapult in the blink of an eye.

This is why I went after it, and shot it down.

Yes, I, the weediest viking in berk managed to shoot down the night fury! How, I hear you ask? I created a bola launcher, that can shoot a bola at a far greater distance than any viking I know of. Bolas are designed to wrap around a victim to stop them from being able to move, sometimes barely even able to wiggle!

Not bad not a few ropes and balls of rock.

But in my inimitable way, I found trouble… or rather the trouble found me. This time it came in the form of a Monstrous Nightmare that rather rudely interrupted my gloating to stomp on my contraption and roar at my face, quickly followed by a stream of sticky fire aimed at my rapidly retreating backside. He then chose to have a bit of fun by chasing me through the streets shooting fire at my screaming self (manly screams, mind you) until I found something to hide behind.

Unfortunately this led to another reason why nobody likes me in the village.

Anything that can go wrong around me, will go wrong. My hiding place was behind a post that was holding up a giant bowl of fire in the night sky. The Monstrous Nightmare's fire easily burned through it, and down it came. The burning bowl snapped off and made its leisurely way through the village, crashing through part of the docks, before plunging off a cliff. It turns out that it also freed a couple of captured Nadders who scooped up a few sheep in the nets they got trapped in! Lucky me.

Trying to convince the villagers that I had in fact hit the night fury was an exercise in futility. Will they listen? Noooooo. Did they care? Noooooo. But I knew that I had hit it. I had heard it shriek in surprise and watched its silhouette fall by Raven's Point.

Which leads me to where I am now, looking up from my improvised map in my sketchbook filled with crosses of where I had searched hopefully to find… a lump of grass. Not even an interesting lump of grass. It was a weedy lump of grass, not even any flowers.

What am I thinking? I'm looking for a Night Fury not a patch of grass!

At least I can cross off another part of my map. Looking down I crossed off where I thought I was and started wandering off aimlessly, then got fed up at the sight of my map and used my charcoal pencil to scribble over it. That felt good. Suddenly irritated by the lack of noise I started talking to myself (first sign of madness, I know)

"Oh, the Gods hate me" If any of the gods had felt like having a joke with vikingkind, that's me.

"Some people lose their mug or their knife. No, no, I lose an entire dragon!" Now I can really feel the anger well up inside me. I didn't feel fair to keep it bottled up inside of me so I swiped at the first thing that came along, a low hanging branch. This branch must have had some sort of anger problems too because it whipped back straight at my face, knocking me back a step.

Glaring at the offending branch, I noticed something about the tree. The reason for its problems with me. Something else had evidently smashed into the tree with a great amount of force, practically snapping it in half. I started wondering _'Could it be?_'. After looking around for a moment I wondered how I missed a trench, gouged into the ground from the tip of this tree that had been snapped in half as if something had slammed into it at high speed.

Cautiously optimistic I walked along the trench and crawled up the lip at the other end. As I got a peek over the top I gasped and quickly pulled my head back. After a moment of silence I felt brave enough to take another look, and there it was.

The Night Fury.

* * *

**AN: This chapter is just to set the scene, I know that I could have done without it but I wanted to. So there. The next chapter is going to be the part where it diverges from the film, but I will be following parts of the film in my own way through this fic so I dont go too overboard with this idea. I am planning on making this quite a long fic (I hope) but to do that I am going to keep the chapter length down to below 2k words. Hope you enjoy this! Review please!**


	2. Fate be changed

******AN: Ok, here be chapter 2, this is where is starts to get different. Not much happens here but its needed to set the scene for the fic. Enjoy!**

******For those who do not understand how my mind works:**

"Human talking"

'Human thinking'

**"Dragon talking"**

**'Dragon thinking'**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD. I would be a mad scientist turning people into mutant lizards.**

* * *

It was actually a bit less impressive than I imagined it to be, it has no vicious horns, no poisoned spikes, just a smooth, lithe, glistening black body with long bat-like wings, a smaller pair of wings just behind the main wings and a final pair on the tip of its tail. Obviously built for speed and control of the air.

"I did it, I actually did it!" Placing a foot on its body I declared "I have brought down this mighty beast!" Apparently the dragon did not appreciate this as it groaned and nudged me off its leg. Suddenly finding my body weak and shaky I scrambled for my ridiculously tiny knife (it was too small to even class as a dagger), I approached the tied up dragon muttering to myself "I'm going to kill you dragon, I'm going to cut your heart out and take it to my father. I am a VIKING!". Then I did what no-one should do.

I looked at the eyes.

I saw fear. I saw pain. I saw myself reflected back to me, all of my childhood pains followed by a thought 'What would I want him to do if our roles were reversed?'. With that in mind I felt my resolve snap, I could never kill this dragon. I almost walked away but then I realised that would be a more painful way to die, by starvation or marauding animals.

Before I realised what I was doing I was kneeling down next to it cutting through a second rope, whispering "almost there, nearly free" in encouragement. Whether that encouragement for me or the dragon I did not know.

I completed missed its eyes snapping open in shock and surprise, but I couldn't miss what happened next. The moment the final rope snapped it leaped up and grabbed my throat with its paw, launching us at the rock I had first hidden behind. My head exploded with a sharp pain as it connected with the rock, but the haze faded as I looked into his eyes again.

Then I saw its teeth. Or rather miniature fangs. Either way it had a row of small(ish) triangular teeth, perfect for digging into something and hanging on until it decides to let go. Right now they were about a foot from my face, but they weren't what my attention was focused on. It was those eyes again.

I saw suspicion. I saw confusion. I saw… recognition? How could it recognise me from those raids? Then a series of images assaulted me, one of them being of a fiery ball tumbling through the village, another of an axe-thrower knocking a wall in. 'Obviously my mistaken attempts to fight dragons has been noticed', I thought grimly. 'At least it will be a quick death'. With dull thought I found my body relaxing slightly, awaiting the end.

I was not completed disappointed.

Lunging down at me, it clamped down on my arms with its jaws and threw me across the ground. Rolling to a stop, I tried to crawl away, but quickly found it difficult to move as my shirt had gotten tangled around my arms, pinning them to my head. Hearing a sharp growl, I twisted my head around in time to see a black blur launch itself at my now bare midriff. Sinking its gums into my side it… wait, what? Gums? I'm sure it had teeth a moment ago! Lifting me with ease, it carried me back to the rock it had first pinned me against, and used it and his front paws to prevent me from moving.

Letting go of me with his mouth, I let out the breath I had been holding. Then it repositioned its mouth over my side, high enough to avoid my hips now, and almost up to my armpits. _'_Probably wants the tasty stuff first.' I thought. With its gummy mouth again pressing down on my side I couldn't help but squirm, and make a few un-viking-like noises. Highly embarrassing.

Suddenly the teeth that I had started at not so long ago shot out of their hiding places, slicing into my skin with ease. 'This is it then'. Then I did what any viking should do, I squeaked from the pain, and fainted. But before the darkness consumed me I swear I heard a voice saying "_You never was a Viking, little hatchling, someday you will thank me for this"._

* * *

Slowly stirring on the dusty ground, I struggled to recall what happened. Then I remembered as a dull pain in my side snapped me into full awareness. I glanced around rapidly looking for the dragon, it had gone! A fresh wave of pain forced me to look down at my side and could see where each tooth had dug into my skin, there was surprisingly little blood. Why wasn't I ripped to shreds? It certainly could have done it when I was unconscious.

Looking up I realised that it was getting darker, it would be night soon. I must have been out for a while. 'Oh well, time to head back and face the music' I thought glumly. With the prospect of an angry father at home I almost wished the dragon had finished the job. Forcing myself I forced my legs to take me in the direction of berk, holding my side where I could feel the deep depressions of the dragons teeth. Not once did I notice the green eyes staring at me from the undergrowth.

* * *

Nearing home I knew that I must not let my dad discover what had happened. I thought that trying to sneak in would be best, as long as I get to my room without being noticed I should be safe. Opening the back door silently and closing it without the usual creak it made I turned around and froze. Dad was sitting by the fire, poking it with a long metal rod, lost in thought. I scampered behind him and started crawling up the stairs, but forgot about step six. The moment I stepped on it, it creaked, instantly getting his attention.

Stoick the Vast. That's my dads name, and he lives up to it in every way. He is huge, even by viking standards. He is among the best dragon slayers of the village, but since mum died we've drifted apart. He is still extremely protective of me though, he even put me in the forge as Gobber's apprentice to keep me out of the dragon raids.

"Hiccup" he asked, getting up and towering in front of me.

"Dad" I responded, desperately forcing my hand to remain loose and away from the bite marks.

"I need to talk to you son"

"I need to talk to you too dad"

"I've decided its time you learned how to fight dragons"

"I've decided I don't want to learn to fight dragons"

It was comical how we tried to talk over each other, but the serious aura in the building and the knowledge of an imminent explosion if he found out my secret kept any signs of humour from my face.

"Erm, you go first, son"

"No, no, you go first"

"Dragon training, you start tomorrow"

'This is bad. This is very, very bad' I was stunned for a moment that dad of all people would let me into dragon training, especially now that I know that I cant kill a dragon, whether its hurt me or not. I even forgot the dull ache in my side for a moment. "Well I was thinking we've got enough dragon-fighting-vikings, but do we have enough bread-making-vikings, or small-home-repair-vikings…"

I didn't have enough time to berate myself mentally for a pathetic respond - even by my standards - as dad dropped a small (for him) axe in my arms, nearly flattening me. "You'll need this" he declared, and before I could reply he continued "I'm going on another nest hunt, we'll be leaving in the morning". With that he made his way out of the house. Checking my dirty shirt, I was only faintly surprised to notice a series of small red marks. 'At least Dad didn't notice'

* * *

Through the window, if you looked carefully enough, there was a pair of floating green orbs in the tree line, observing everything carefully.

* * *

**AN: So what do you think? I'm still not sure whether or not to make Hiccup a girl or not though. Give me your ideas!**


	3. Why me?

**AN: WOW! So many views! I never though I would get this much attention for this story. So many more faves and follows than I expected too! And already got half as many reviews as my other story after only two chapters! I'm going to focus on this story for now, I'll leave 'A New Beginning' to rest for now as this one seems to have a lot more interest. Hope you continue to enjoy this!**

******For those who do not understand how my mind works:**

"Human talking"

'Human thinking'

**"Dragon talking"**

**'Dragon thinking'**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD. But I do own your face. It's currently on EBAY.**

* * *

Worst night ever. What's wrong with me? I never had any problems sleeping before, so I don't know what was so bad about the night. I'm used to the cold, to dads snoring, to small pains in my side, but I'm constantly waking up. Every time I wake there is some sort of new pain somewhere in my body, but after a few minutes it subsides. Sometimes I wake up with an arm or leg cramped up, but that fades. I even had my fingers jerking spasmodically for a while. I hope this doesn't stay for long, whatever it is.

* * *

The unmistakable clattering of steel was a very unwelcome way to be woken in the morning. Especially when you was so restless that you couldn't get much sleep. Groaning, I poked my head out the window to see Bucket balancing a barrel of weapons with one arm and another tipped over on the floor. Bucket is our resident artist, and also one of the dumbest people in the village as he got a minor case of serious brain damage from a marauding dragon. And so he wears a bucket on his head. Very fitting.

"Bucket! Those are supposed to be taken to the docks! Not here!" Called Mulch, hobbling after him. Mulch is Bucket's unofficial caretaker (making sure he doesn't break anything) and is probably the second kindest person to me, besides Bucket.

"Uhhh, I thought this was the docks" Bucket replied dumbly.

"The docks are where the boats are, got it?"

"Oh. Ok." With that he picked up the other barrel with his hook and turned around. Apparently he noticed me watching, and so waved, shouting "Mornin' Hiccup!" Unfortunately, he dropped the barrel again, making even more noise and ensuring no chance of me getting any more sleep.

Waving back at the pair, I changed out of my dirty shirt, and checked the bite. This time, instead of seeing small red marks, it looked like it had scarred over. Except it was black scars. Shaking my head, I slipped a new shirt on then headed downstairs, wincing at a twinge in my back. I noticed a burnt fish on the table, evidently dad hasn't got the hint that I can't stand his cooking. Ignoring the fish I grabbed some bread from the cupboard and left for the forge.

* * *

Entering the forge and its familiar heat, I immediately noticed the absence of metal clanging against metal. Gobber's out obviously. Wandering over to a pile of horribly bent weapons I threw a few swords onto the furnace and began heating them so the Gobber could fix them later.

"There ye are, lad!" Gobber boomed as he hobbled in. "I was wonderin' if yer would show up!" Gobber has been my mentor for as long as I could remember, and I still couldn't get used to him entering this way. From the surprise of his entrance and a spasm in my leg I managed to trip over something and landed on my butt, making a very manly viking squeak on the way down.

"Will you ever stop doing that to me?" I grumbled, picking myself up.

"Not really" He replied, utterly nonchalant. "Anyway, what are yer doin' 'ere? Thought you would be down at th' docks with the others?"

"Oh, yeah. That. I'll be down in a minute"

"In that case you can help me carry this last lot of weapons down there" Gobber threw a few bandoleers of throwing knives at me, which I managed to catch (barely).

* * *

The walk down to the boats wasn't as bad as it could have been. At least I could stay directly behind Gobber and let him part the crowds of busy Vikings. I didn't have any more sudden pains. Finally making our way to where they were loading the boats, I passed the bandoleers to Bucket (who had somehow found his way here). Bucket couldn't quite work out what they were, so threw them onto a boat with a shrug.

"Stoick! Go find that blasted nest already!" Gobber said good naturedly as Stoick walked up to them. Stoick didn't respond as we were looking at each other uncomfortably, waiting for the other to say something first.

Noticing a lack of, well…anything happening between us, Gobber decided to do it for us. Turning around to put a hand, erm _hook_ on Stoick's back he started with "Hiccup, your dad says he wants you to stay alive, and learn how to fight dragons, and to also avoid burning down the village while he's gone. And to find the trolls that keeps on stealing poor old Gobber's left socks."

Then he turned around to face Stoick, planting a hand on my back - nearly knocking me over - and continued "Stoick, Hiccup wants you to find the nest, kill everything there, and come home for supper. He also wants you to stop taking your problems out on poor uncle Gobber". I could feel a muscle twitching where his hand lay. After finishing he hobbled off to assist the loading of another boat, looking quite proud of his achievements.

Despite that, we stayed where we were, still more than a little awkward. Deciding to break the silence, I simply looked up at my dad and said "Stay safe, dad", butterflies running amok in my stomach.

"Oh, uh. You too son" He mumbled back, still clearly unsure of what to do.

Spitelout the came up to dad and told him "The boats are loaded and everyone's ready. We can go when you say the word."

I turned away to walk back to where the rest of the bystanders were watching, noticing Astrid and the gang saying their goodbyes to their families. _'Why can't we be like that?'_ I thought as I watched Fishlegs give his parents a bear hug, clearly nervous about the whole thing.

"SET SAIL! FOR HELHEIMS GATE!" Stoick boomed, and three ships detached themselves from their moorings and began to sail off.

* * *

Along with the rest of the village, I waited until they had cleared Berks shores to head back up to the village. I ended up walking slightly behind Astrid and the others as we entered the village proper. Fortunately they hadn't noticed me. Snotlout was busy trying to impress Astrid, who was trying to avoid him. The twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had devolved into another fight, this time about who was older (again). Fishlegs was re-reading the book of dragons for the sixth or seventh time.

"There ye lot are." Gobber hobbled his way over to the group "Remember you've got dragon training, starting tomorrow. I want you there midday sharp or you'll have to clean my undies." He threatened, then laughed at the horrified expressions on their faces "Not really, but don't be late". The others looked visibly relieved. Nobody who has touched Gobber's undies ever wants to again. Bad memories came from those undies.

Midway through his talk, I felt many sharp needles of pain in my side, radiating from where the dragon had left its marks the previous day. Hissing from the pain, I clutched my side. Gobber looked at me curiously, so I waved his attention away. A few steps later, the pain intensified, dropping me to my knees. I heard Snotlouts distinctive laugh behind me when Gobber asked "What's wrong Hiccup?"

"No idea" I lied, trying to get back on my feet, before falling onto my backside. "Its nothing"

Gobber clearly didn't believe anything I said at the moment and pried my hand off my side and lifting my shirt up. Then he used his hook to rip my shirt clean off.

"Whoa, nice tattoos!" Exclaimed Tuffnut.

Confused, I looked at my side and immediately noticed what he meant. From each of the tooth marks was radiating a series of razor thin black lines, criss-crossing across my side.

"Uh, guys. That's not a tattoo. Those lines are getting longer." Interjected a very worried Fishlegs. Apparently that broke Gobber out of his stupor from when he saw the bite mark.

"What the 'eck happened to you? When did this happen? What did this? Was it a dragon?"

I nodded dumbly, squeezing my eyes shut as the lines spread up and down my arms and legs. Suddenly, the pain ended, like a candle being blown out by the wind, and I felt heavier. I could hear Gobber's yelling for someone to fetch Gothi, the village healer.

Forcing my eyes open, I realised that the feeling of weight was no illusion. My entire body was swelling up rapidly, the black lines growing in width as well. I felt a greater pressure form around my shoulder blades and the base of my spine, but that became the least of my worries (relatively) as my limbs began moving of their own accord.

With a simultaneous cracking, my hips bent so my legs were now facing as if I was sitting down, my spine realigned and stretched, and my head snapped upwards to follow on from the line of my spine. It also gave me a good view of Gothi's face. And her stick, which promptly bonked me on the head.

"What was that for?" I complained. I noticed several villagers flinch, and belatedly realised that my voice didn't sound like it usually did. Instead it was low and gravely, more growl than voice. Meanwhile, the pressure on my back and spine had changed into fleshy growths, rapidly growing in size and covered in hundreds of small black lines.

Those lines finally covered the majority of my body, then starting from the tooth marks began to push out some sort round black objects. I recognised them as scales, the same sort of scales as the Night Fury. With that in mind I realised what was happening, and croaked out one last pair of words, nearly unintelligible.

"Night Fury"

I noticed Gobber, who was standing next to Gothi, pale as he figured out what I said. As if the words themselves brought it out, everything seemed to speed up. Scales quickly wrapped around each limb, crawling up and over my torso and up to my head. The shapeless objects on my back extended into long, bat-like wings and a long tail with fins at the base and tip.

As the scales wound their way up my neck and around my head I felt my head distort, growing longer but flattening slightly at the same time. I watched as my nose broadened and flattened into a snout and felt my teeth turn to sharpened fangs.

Finally, it ended. Standing the middle of a village of Vikings, I was now a slightly smaller replica of the same Night Fury that I had found. I could feel unconsciousness trying to overtake me, but I had enough time to say, or shout, one last thing before the darkness overwhelmed me.

"WHHHHYYYYYY?!"

* * *

**AN: Here be dragons! What do you think is gonna happen? BTW due to an overwhelming majority, Hiccup is going to be transormed into...(insert drum roll here)... a boy! Ha. Bet you never saw that coming. For all those worrywarts out there, his head will not roll. There is no point trying to kill him when I've just started the story.**

**Tell me what you think please!**


	4. Um, what just happened?

**AN: Thanks for all the reviews! More than I ever hoped to get. Regarding the boy/girl transformation decision, the overwhelming opinion was for Hiccup to remain male. Sorry for all those who wanted a fem!Hiccup story, but you got outvoted. Aegis Dragon: dont worry, there will be a female in this story but not until later. I'm still working out how far in though, so be patient please!**

**Gobber is going to have the first half of this chapter, so my apologies if he comes out a bit too OOC.**

******For those who do not understand how my mind works:**

"Human talking"

'Human thinking'

_"Dragon talking"_

_'Dragon thinking'_

**Disclaimer: I spend my nights plotting how to conquer the world. I will start with HTTYD.**

* * *

Everyone stared in horror at the thing that now occupied the space Hiccup had been. All of the remainder of the village had seen at least part of the gruesome transformation from my annoying but helpful apprentice to slightly bigger scary creature. No-one could escape the fact that there was now some sort of dragon lying in the village. It looked painful, too. At least that's what I got looking at his eyes.

Wait, he tried to tell me something! What was it? 'Meat Fuzzy? Night Foggy? No Furry? Night Fury? Wait, Night Fury?!' Looking over the draconic body, none of it was familiar, there was nothing in it in the book of dragons. I should know, I train the new recruits how to fight dragons. The only blank entry in the book of dragons is the Night Fury, because no-one has seen it and survived.

Black scales, perfect for camouflaging itself in the night skies. Huge wingspan for its body size and streamlined body, will be able to fly really fast, probably how it makes that screeching noise when it attacks. Four sets of tail fins, extremely manoeuvrable in the air. No wonder nobody ever saw it.

"Night Fury" I whispered in awe. Apparently I didn't whisper quietly enough, as the name quickly spread through the crowd.

Without warning, the Night Fury shifted, bringing my thoughts closer to the moment. Even if it was Hiccup before… this…happened, would it still be Hiccup now? Or would a dragon be inhabiting this body as well. Or what if it is the dragon pretending to be Hiccup, or Hiccup pretending to be a dragon? Oh, my head hurts now. Too much thinking. I need a drink. I need to change my undies.

First things first though, now is not the time to take unnecessary chances. "Pin it down! Someone get the dragon wagon from the arena! Now!" Everyone jumped to action at my bellowing, rushing off to the arena or grabbing hold of a limb and pressing it to the ground. I made sure to grab the head, making sure that he couldn't open his mouth but not being overly rough (just in case it is still the Hiccup I always loved to tease).

A few minutes later, the dragon wagon arrived. In reality, it was little more than a wooden cart with wheels and chains, designed to move an unconscious dragon to the arena quickly and safely. When it arrived we got the dragon on it and strapped it down quickly, fortunately still unconscious. Putting a muzzle on the Night Fury, we began the journey back to the dragon arena.

We left the dragon tied down in the wagon in the middle of the arena, and the few experienced dragon slayers that had remained on the island formed a ring around it. We made sure that everyone else had left in case there was a fight.

Everyone except Gothi, that is. Seriously, she can sneak around when she wants to. I don't think anyone noticed her until she was standing by the dragon's face, prying an eye open.

"Gothi! What are you doing?"

She turned around and drew a few squiggles on the ground, which I translated roughly as 'look into his eyes'. As Gothi is the elder of the village, it is always a good idea to do as she asks, no matter how strange it seems. Kneeling down by his head, I kept my axe-hand ready, and reached my hand out.

Then his eyes snapped open.

* * *

Well. That was a weird dream. I dreamt that Bucket woke me up, dad left to find the dragons nest and I turned into a Night Fury. How strange. My dreams are getting weirder and weirder. Oh well, time to see what horrors lie in wait for me today.

ACK! GOBBER'S FACE! Definitely a nightmare now. My head recoiled back only to be abruptly stopped by something around my neck. Wincing slightly, I tried to stand up to find out that the rest of my body was tied down firmly. There's even chains around my scaly wrists. Wait, scales? Black scales? Oh no. That wasn't a dream, it definitely happened.

Without warning, what happened before I blacked out came back to me, and my head shot up again to meet Gobber's eyes. Only this time instead of Gobber standing there Gothi was looking down on me. Or rather, up at me as I'm still taller that her. She's giving me a really creepy look, like she can see through you and into your memories, and tell you how your going to die or something like that.

Its slightly hypnotising staring into her eyes, it's more than a little hard to look away when she is giving you _The Look_. That is, until she bashed you with her stick. Let me tell you, she has a mean right hook with that thing.

"Ow!" If I could I would have rubbed the spot she had brutally attacked with her stick, but, you know, still tied down. It's a minor inconvenience, sort of. Instead I settled for shooting her a hurt look, and pouted slightly. Yes, I know. Its not a very macho viking thing, but I have been through a lot recently, so I thought it was worth trying. I don't know if it'll work as someone has muzzled me. How rude.

It seemed to have worked, as she smiled at me before turning away to face Gobber, turning her back completely to me. Now, I might not know how to fight like a viking but I do know that she is showing me her trust. Or she's trusting the chains to keep me in place. Damn my overworking brain! Now I'm going in circles. I noticed that she was writing something on the ground, but only Gobber could successfully translate what she writes. Most of the time.

"Remember, Trolls eat socks. So that's what happens to my left socks! But what does that have to do with him?" He gestured with his axe to me. Gothi bonked Gobber with a grumble, causing me to snigger quietly, before writing on the ground again.

"Oh. Remember, trust is earned. But what does that have to do with him again?" From the looks of things Gothi was glaring at him. Not many can withstand that look, and Gobber isn't one of them. I'm glad its not being directed at me for once.

Gobber peered over Gothi's head at me, clearly trying to think, and just as clearly failing. "We have to earn trust?" Gothi nodded and gestured for him to continue. "We have to earn each others trust?" Gesturing between me and him. Gothi nodded again and gave Gobber a small clap, to which he looked immensely proud.

"But how do you know that is still Hiccup? It could be another dragon waiting for us to let our guards down before attacking us." He questioned. I heard other vikings murmuring their assent with what Gobber mentioned. To be honest, I'm not surprised he brought that up. Its not like this has happened before, and the viking way **is **'kill on sight'. That's a worrying thought.

_"Gobber, I'm still me, I…" _The muzzle made it too painful to continue, but I knew that even if I could say something else it wouldn't matter. Everything I had tried to say came out as some sort of growl. There's no chance of Gobber understanding that. What about runes? If I could draw a few runes, maybe he could… damn, I can hold anything to write with now, can I? Stupid hand-paw-things.

Frustrated, I got a little restless, and started shifting around within my restraints. Probably not the best of ideas as I saw a couple of the vikings around me hold their weapons a bit tighter, some of them moving into combat stances. At the sight of all those weapons I felt claws extend, and felt them leave small marks on the wood of the platform I was on.

Wait! Claws + wood = Gobber! Not something that would usually make sense, but now it does! I can use these claws to draw out the runes that spells Gobber's name, genius! Focusing on my right hand, er… paw, I tried to use a single claw to draw out the simple runes. It is a bit harder than I expected, as I have to keep the entire paw tilted at an awkward angle, which is difficult to maintain when you've been chained down.

Successfully writing 'Gobber' in the wood, I looked down at the marks proudly. I have to admit, it is quite good considering the circumstances. I was so thrilled of my achievement that I didn't realise that I had started purring. Looking back to Gobber, I could see from the blank expression that he has no idea what had happened.

Growing impatient, I deliberately tapped my handiwork twice, making sure to be obvious about it.

I saw him look down at my paw, then the runes I had drawn, then at me, then at the runes again. I started to wonder if he would ever get the message. Then his face lit up

"Gobber!" he shouted.

I heard another viking chuckle and say "He's already here, you know"

"No, no. He wrote my name!" A few other vikings looked surprised as they saw this as well.

The tapping of wood against stone brought everyone's attention back to Gothi, who was standing by her squiggles and tapping the ground by them, looking directly at Gobber again.

Gobber started rubbing his chin in the way that he always did when he was thinking hard about a problem. "Hmm, trust is earned, eh?" He began inspecting his axe blade, which caused my stomach to churn in worry. He couldn't be thinking of… could he? "He's probably still a dragon, you know. You can't trust a dragon."

Lifting the axe high, I got a good look at it. It was still razor sharp, which I expected as I had sharpened it only two days ago, glimmering as the sunlight reflected off it. So this is it, then. Killed by a weapon I made. That sucks. Staring at it in horror, I couldn't even struggle against my bonds.

I could only watch as he swung the axe down at me.

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**AN: Again, apologies if I didn't do Gobber very well, and for his random mood swings. Review please!**


	5. Hiccup's first friend

**AN: Here's chapter 5 for you. This one is going to be solely from Hiccup's P.O.V, although he might get a little OOC at the end (can't blame him considering everything I'm putting him through). Thanks for all the reviews so far, please continue telling me what you think of it. It gives me a reason to continue. coltjolt: Thanks for your advice, I'll keep it in mind. Hope you enjoy this chapter :-)**

******For those who do not understand how my mind works:**

"Human talking"

'Human thinking'

_"Dragon talking"_

_'Dragon thinking'_

**Disclaimer: I will mind control everyone in HTTYD to control it.**

* * *

If this is what being dead feels like, I really must complain. I cannot feel any difference whatsoever. I would of liked it if I had a floaty, free feeling. Or if I could say 'Hi' to Odin, Thor, give Loki a good slap for what he did to me. Nope. Nothing. Only the wind brushing against my skin. Wait, would you feel the wind in Asgard? Maybe I should open my eyes to check.

Prying my right eye open, I got a good, close view of Gobber's face again. Is this going to become some sort of regular thing for him? The next thing I noticed was that his left arm was stretched out to my side. That is, his axe bladed hand. Its strange though, nothing hurts. With a grunt, he pulled his axe back, and I saw that instead of cutting my head off, he had lodged it into the cart. Cautiously looking down to the side, I half expected to see my paw as a mangled mess, which I somehow hadn't noticed.

He hadn't decided to turn me into a strange parody of himself with random limbs missing. His axe sliced cleanly through the chain holding my paw down. Lifting it and letting the severed chain dangle, I faced Gobber and raised my eyebrow (or tried to).

"Jus' because yer a dragon doesn't min ya ain't still Hiccup. Write something else." He commanded.

Rolling my eyes, I thought of something to write. I cant do anything too complicated or long, but it has to be something distinctive to Gobber. Oh, I know!

TROLLS GOT LEFT SOCKS

"Everyone who knows me knows about those damn trolls. Do something only Hiccup would know" The big man commanded.

Exasperated, I groaned and let my head hit the floor. Then the sunlight glinting off of Gobber's axe made something click. I lifted my head and gave Gobber a sly look and smirked, letting him know what he's gotten himself into.

LOLA

"Waitamoment! nonono, how did you know? I never told you that!" He spluttered, before muttering something unintelligible.

Another viking peered over my shoulder to look at the writing. "What does that mean Gobber? Lola?"

Gobber ignored the question, glaring at me.

I couldn't help but snort at the man. Glancing over my shoulder at the viking, I pointed my head at Gobber, then his axe, then at Gobber again. I made the movements as obvious as possible to get the message across.

"Gobber, axe, Gobber, Gobber's axe." This one is clearly not by any means the brightest of those left behind, as he continued like this for a while.

It clearly got on Gobber's nerves, as after a few moments he shouted "Alright, alright! I name my favourite weapons! I called this axe Lola." He cradled 'Lola' in his arms.

The vikings around me burst out laughing, causing Gobber to go bright red in the face, pointing 'Lola' at me. "An' you! Just because ya know that doesn't mean I trust yer. Ye might have Hiccup's memories but that doesn't mean yer 'im!" He turned around and stormed off to the exit, nearly bumping into Gothi.

The remainder took this as their que to leave, never turning away from me.

_"Uh, are you just going to…" _The portcullis slammed down behind them _"leave me here?"_ I finished weakly. Silence answered me. Grumbling, I tugged at some of the chains, hoping to find some sort of weakness in the metal.

_"You are one strange dragon"_

_"What? Who was that?" _I jumped at the sudden voice.

_"Your conscience"_ It responded dryly.

Looking around, I saw nothing to indicate where the phantom voice was coming from. _"Got any advice then?" _I tried to avoid sounding desperate, but the muzzle didn't help me to sound calm.

_"If you're stuck in the Restrainer, push down until the floor gives way. Then if you can find a way to open this cage I can burn the metal off you. And you're still a strange dragon, talking to the Scaleless like they're intelligent creatures"_

So the mystery voice is a dragon, one of those trapped in a cage and used for training. I wonder what this dragon will think of my past. Probably wont trust me either. Using my free paw, I scratched at the muzzle until it came loose, then shook my head until it came completely off.

Setting my legs beneath me, I began pushing at the wooden floor when a stray thought came to me. _"What do you mean, the Scaleless?"_

_"You know, got two legs, no scales, has a habit of poking us with shiny, sharp things."_ It replied, sounding like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

_"You mean humans?" _I questioned, hearing a few faint cracks as my legs strained to stretch.

_"Your just making yourself sound even stranger, giving things weird names." _With multiple cracks, the wooden floor shattered, dumping me unceremoniously onto the floor in a pile of scales, wood and chain. _"That sounds promising. Any chance of opening this cage now?"_

I could now guess which door held the talkative voice, so I started pulling myself towards it.

Walking is a lot harder when you've got two extra legs to coordinate. And its made considerably harder when you have to pull broken wooden beams by your ankles. I couldn't prevent myself from tripping over the beams a few times, and even got my own feet tangled up one time. Each time I fell over, I struggled to pull myself to my feet again, the hope of help being the only thing keeping me going.

After much struggling and cursing, I made it over to the door. _"You in this one?"_ I questioned.

_"Yes, now get me out of here please!" _The voice sounded really excited to be freed from the cage.

Looking to the side, I spotted the lever for the locking mechanism (a wooden log lowered into holders on the doors) and stumbled over to it. Stretching up to grab it, a limitation of paws suddenly became glaringly obvious. I cant grab it. I can reach up to slap it sideways, but that doesn't help me move the lever down at all.

Unconsciously I started growling at my newfound lack of dexterity. Come on Hiccup, think! Use your head! Wait, use my head. Of course! I might be able to push the lever down with my chin. Raising my head, I took a cautious step forwards. And promptly fell over. I hadn't watched my footing, and got tangled up in the debris again.

My step did take my chin over the lever though, and the fall, as graceless as it was, did knock the lever down. It just left me in a really awkward position slumped up against the wall, staring into the rock with my neck bent backwards.

The cage doors flew open, knocking me off to the side, accompanied with a blue-ish blur darting out and a screech of _"FINALLY! A chance to stretch without being chased around by stupid Scaleless hatchlings. You're the first dragon to ever open that cage, thank you!"_ The blur resolved itself into a Deadly Nadder swooping around the arena gracefully.

After a couple of circuits, she remembered her end of the deal, and landed swiftly in front of me. Then she froze. _"How the heck did they get _you_? I thought Dark Ones never got involved in the food gathering."_

_"Could you get me out of this first?" _I shook a paw to rattle a chain.

_"Oh yes, not a problem." _Four quick bursts of flames took care of the metal shackles, I didn't even have time to flinch from the momentary bursts of heat. Shaking myself free of the remainders of the cart, I carefully walked to a clearer patch of ground.

_"What happened? Your walking like a hatchling, did they hurt you?" _To my surprise, she sounded genuinely concerned.

I sighed and turned to face her again. _"I'm fine. Ok, I'm not fine. This is going to sound crazy, but until recently I used to be a hu... a Scaleless."_

_"How hard did they hit your head? Must have been pretty hard for you to forget how to walk and think you was one of those dumb creatures."_ She snorted.

_"Oh yeah? How did they get you then?"_ I challenged.

_"About 12 moon-cycles ago, I was chasing my favourite Scaleless around their nest. I loved chasing it because it was so clumsy and funny, always destroying something. I must have chased it around the entire nesting area once and was starting on another lap when the Big Red Alpha tied me up and knocked me out."_

I froze. I remember this Nadder, it was chasing **me**. _"Was this just after he knocked a wall out of a house… erm, nest?"_ I said stiffly.

_"Yes, I was laughing for a long time after that. Used some wooden thing to do it which smashed itself to pieces!" _The Nadder started laughing again at the memory, oblivious to my unease. _"Hey, how did you know? Did you chase it too?"_

_"It was me" _I deadpanned

_"What?"_

_"That boy you chased was me, I remember it." _I started to feel frustrated at the dragon.

_"That's impossible"_ She dismissed it, and began preening in the sunlight.

I frowned at her, thinking. There must be a way to link me to myself, we don't look like I used to now, I wouldn't sound similar now, maybe I smell the same? Dragons have an excellent sense of smell, I think Fishlegs once told me. _"Do you recognise my smell?"_

"Doubt it"

She interrupted her preening to hop over to me, and gave me a few cursory sniffs. _"Nope, I don't recogn…"_ She trailed off, before continuing breathlessly _"Wait, I do recognise your scent, it's the same as the Scaleless hatchling."_ She shook her head and put a few metres between us _"But that's impossible! That can't be, there has to be some sort of…"_

My frustration boiled over to anger, and I began taking wobbly steps towards her. _"Impossible? The impossible happened to me."_ I snarled _"In the middle of my own village I was __**impossibly**__ changed into a Night Fury. I __**impossibly**__ grew scales, wings and a tail. And now __**nobody **__will trust me, I cant defend myself if they want to kill me, I CANT EVEN WALK!"_ I roared, panting.

The Nadder was clearly taken aback by my rant, and I was too. I never though I had that in me, it must have been building up over years of neglect. Maybe it is better to start again, although I've probably pushed her away too.

I slumped to the floor as she stared. The silence started to turn uncomfortable, so I started to open my mouth to apologize, but she spoke first. _"I believe you" _She said. I looked up to her hopefully. She came up to me and nuzzled her head against mine, which was strangely comforting.

_"I will keep you safe"_

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**AN: So there you go, Hiccup has a friend. I'm going to start a chapter with Astrid soon, she will become more of a major part of the story later, but not quite yet.**

**Tell me what you think of this one!**


	6. Viking confusion, Dragon friendships

**AN: Woohooo! Over fifty reviews already! And after only five chapters! I also noticed that for a while, the number of reviews and follows changed at the same pace. Well, here is chapter six. I decided to give Gobber the first half of this chapter, but for all those waiting for Astrid to make her appearance, she will definately be in the next chapter. Enjoy!**

******For those who do not understand how my mind works:**

"Human talking"

'Human thinking'

_"Dragon talking"_

_'Dragon thinking'_

**Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it? Again?**

* * *

Gobber always thought of mead as a happy drink. A happy drink for happy people, who sing out of tune and dance their pride away, then get into a brawl over who was the best dancer.

Not this time.

Gobber sighed glumly into his thrice emptied tankard, sitting in one corner of the great hall, blanking out the sounds of the argument around him. An argument over what to do with his annoying-but-helpful-blacksmithing-apprentice-turn ed-Night-Fury. So far there are two options: kill him now, or parade him around to the other tribes, then kill him. He sighed again as he tuned into the row.

"Its too dangerous to keep alive! Kill it now!"

"Wait for Stoick to return and let him kill the thing!"

"Tie it up and throw it into the ocean!"

"Give it a new bucket! Happy snoggletog everyone!"

"Bring the other chiefs here and kill it in front of them!"

Gobber wasn't ready to give up on his former apprentice just yet, but was too depressed about the situation to do anything about it. He saw Hiccup's body change into that of a dragon, but did the dragon take over his mind too? It certainly didn't act like a dragon in the arena, no snarling or struggling. And it wrote! Not every viking knows how to read or write, but Hiccup knew how to, and so did that dragon. But could it be using Hiccup's memories to deceive us? It did embarrass him with that secret, but would a dragon rather fight its way out instead? Even if it knew it would fail?

Waving his drinking arm, he signalled for another round to banish these confusing thoughts. Three wasn't nearly enough to get him happily drunk. Doing so, he didn't notice as Gothi hobbled her way next to him. He certainly noticed as she gave him a good wallop round the head with her stick. Gobber nearly fell off the bench in his surprise, his peg leg getting lodged in the floor being the only reason he stayed off the floor.

"Wha' was tha' for? I'm busy working here!" He had to shout to be heard over the ruckus. Turning around to see who the offender was, he came face to face with a very unimpressed looking Gothi. "Oh, Gothi. What can I do fer yeh?" He asked a bit more calmly.

Gothi simply stood there glaring at the bigger man. Gobber stared back dumbly, until he received another wallop. "OW, what?"

Gothi rolled her eyes and sketched out the outline of a Night Fury. She then tapped the image and waved her staff to encompass the entire hall, where everyone was still fighting over what to do. Gobber knew what to do, he knew what Gothi wanted too. Grumbling slightly, Gobber climbed onto the top of the table unsteadily, pushing a brawling pair of vikings unceremoniously onto the floor, took a deep breath, and shouted.

"QUUUIIIEEETTT!"

When the turmoil had finally subsided, Gobber continued "Now ah know that ye want ta kill the Night Fury. But can ye be sure its not still Hiccup inside?"

"Does it really matter?" a random villager shouted.

"We'll be doing the village a favour!" another yelled, starting an avalanche of similar shouts.

"Do ye want ta be the one who tells chief Stoick ye killed his son?" Gobber's shout quieted the village again. "Do any of yeh know how ta kill a Night Fury anyway?"

"Stab it through the heart" someone called, causing a ripple of chuckles in the crowd.

Gobber rolled his eyes "Look, we've got a perfect chance to finally learn how ta fight the things. Ah will watch it, and when the trainees are ready they will learn how ta fight it." That seemed to appease the village, except Mildew, who thankfully kept his mouth shut.

Gobber hopped down from the table, using an unfortunate viking to keep himself steady (and throwing the other to the floor in the process), and left to start watching the dragon.

Approaching the arena, Gobber slowed down, hoping to arrive unobserved. As he snuck closer to the bars, he heard something strange. Two sets of growling, as if a pair of dragons were talking or something. Little did he know how close he was to the truth.

* * *

Do you ever get the feeling that someone is trying to kill you? I've got that feeling at the moment. The problem is, I'm being taught how to walk properly by the Nadder, who I've learnt is called Stormfly by her friends. Apparently she likes the feeling when flying through a storm, getting thrown about randomly and spun around so fast she gets too dizzy to fly in a straight line.

She isn't really trying to be subtle either, whenever my walking falters, she launches a couple of spines at the offending limb, albeit newer ones with less poison. I learnt pretty early on that even wearing a natural scaly armour it still hurts, especially when one gets lodged between some scales. Its forced me to learn to move quickly without falling flat on my face… most of the time.

Keeping an eye an Stormfly helps me to stay aware of any imminent strikes, but it doesn't allow me to watch my step very easily. On the contrary, it becomes considerably easier for me to trip over my own limbs when I'm not paying attention. Like now.

_"Right hind-leg is dragging too much" _Hopping over a pair of quills that looked like they could have pinned my foot to the floor, I turned to glare at her.

_"You're meant to be helping me learn how to walk, not use me as a pin cushion."_ I grumbled.

_"Do it right and I wont have to. Practice makes perfect, right?" _Stormfly cackled _"Keep moving!"_ She shot a quill at my back leg, forcing me to jump forward into a trot to avoid it as she continued preening herself.

_"Wings are drooping!" _She shouted again. I lowered my body to duck another quill, and quickly resumed my walking, nearly stacking it within five steps (breaking my personal record).

This lasted for a while, and even though I had improved noticeably, I was never satisfied with how it was going. I knew that I could do a little bit better each time, but that was just outside my grasp, and that annoyed me greatly.

Slipping over once again, I flinched as a spine buried itself into the floor in front of my nose, to Stormfly's great delight. _"Will you stop that!"_ I shouted _"Can't we do this some other way?"_

_"But this is more fun" _She mock-complained _"I enjoy preening while you walk around aimlessly"_

_"I don't"_ I replied.

_"Fine, fine." _She rolled her eyes _"I know what we could do, but we need more people, can you open the other cages?"_

_"Sure, not a problem" _Once I had flicked the levers (carefully, so I wouldn't embarrass myself too much), the other dragons came out of their cages, but cautiously, as if they expected to be ambushed at any moment.

_"Who's the new guy?" _The Grunckle asked Stormfly.

_"Everyone, this is Hiccup"_

_"Ha! That's a funny name!" _Interrupted the Monstrous Nightmare.

Stormfly turned a glare on him before continuing _"Hiccup, this is Meatlug, Barf and Belch, Biter and lastly Hookfang."_ She gestured to the Grunckle, Zippleback, Terror and Nightmare in turn as she said their names, 'accidentally' flicking a quill at Hookfang in the process._ "Ok, Hiccup here is having a little problem with his balance, so we're going to help him out, got it?" _She glared at Hookfang to stop him making any derisive comments, then flew over to the weapons rack and grabbed a shield. _"We're going to have a little game of catch-the-circle-thingy. Where Hiccup has to snatch it off of us, and we toss it to each other to stop him. Go!"_

Stormfly hopped a few paces backwards before tossing the shield to Hookfang. Seeing an opportunity, I jumped into the air and tried to smack the disk down. My leap was fairly clumsy though, I landed awkwardly after missing the shield, nearly collapsing where I landed.

Recovering, I turned to see that Meatlug was now hovering with the shield in her mouth. I tried running over to knock the shield out of her mouth, but she flicked her head and sent it sailing to the Zippleback. Biter tried to intercept it, but the force of the throw meant he couldn't catch it properly. Instead, it bounced off his chin, knocking him unconscious. I tried to change direction, but my limbs failed me, so I ended up nearly rolling under her.

_"Kid, how'd they get you?" _She asked. _"I never though a dark one would get caught easily so something must have happened to you"_

Climbing back to my feet, I began explaining everything from the beginning as I advanced on the shield again, currently being fought over by the Zippleback heads. Before long, the game ended as they listened to my story in wonder and curiosity. After explaining my story I asked for theirs before they could bombard me with questions.

Apparently they all got caught chasing me.

* * *

A lopsided figure crept away from the arena, where he had been observing the actions of one dragon in particular. None of the dragons in the area noticed his presence, except one, this one hiding in the shadows of the tree line, curious about the actions of the same dragon the Scaleless was watching. When the limping Scaleless had left, he gave one last look to the talking dragons and melted into the forest.

Time to hunt.

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**AN: So... Tell me what you think**


	7. Training for training

**AN: Astrid's here! And I've given Toothless the second half of this chapter. Thanks for all the comments! Just so you know, the dragons have little to no understanding about humans, just as the humans dont know anything about the dragons.**

******For those who do not understand how my mind works:**

"Human talking"

'Human thinking'

_"Dragon talking"_

_'Dragon thinking'_

**Disclaimer: I own this story, and little else.**

* * *

THUNK!

Dragon training will start later. I'm going to show them whose the best fighter of our age group. I'll show them how to fight. The only competition will be the dragons, not the other trainees. And I will be the one to kill the Monstrous Nightmare.

THUNK!

Not Fishlegs. He's good with a hammer but is terrified of using it. He will be good for determining a dragons weak spot, but he isn't a fighter, he wont be chosen.

THUNK!

Ruffnut and Tuffnut. They wont be very good at fighting dragons. They spend too much time brawling with each other at the worst of moments. They both are skilled with their spears, I always thought that Ruff is better though. But they cant work together for any length of time. They wont be chosen.

THUNK!

Snotlout. Just thinking about his and his *shudder* flirting makes me want to bring a tree down. With him under it. Why wont he leave me alone? I can't stand his attempts to impress me, I would rather he just stay out of my way and stutter like Hiccup. Wow, did I really just think that? Anyway, I would have thought that punching him in the face enough times would show him that I don't want him. He can fight though, and he is strong, but he will probably just get in my way. I wont be denied my kill by him. Ever.

THUNK!

And Hiccup's not going to be…

CRASH!

After I threw my axe into a tree I saw it sink with the same satisfying sound that it has this morning, except this time I threw it so hard it sliced clean through an entire branch. At least I know it's still in good condition. When he sharpens it he…

Hiccup.

He wont be sharpening my axe again. I actively avoid thinking about him, and what happened to him, but I will have to see him again sometime. I am going into dragon training after all. And he is a dragon now. The enemy.

I'm willing to give that creature the benefit of the doubt that it is still Hiccup inside, but if it isn't, well, I'll see how well my axe can slice through something other than a tree. Picking my axe out of the fall log, I ran my thumb over the edge of the blade. Still as sharp as it should be.

It hurt to see what happened to him. I didn't hate the boy, he just got really irritating. All of these invention things that never work, why couldn't he simply stay out of the way? Or better yet, learn how to fight? He might not have been strong, but he was more than capable to make his own weapon.

He made my axe. I know that everyone tells me that it was a gift from Gobber, but I know that he couldn't have made it. Too much attention to detail for Gobber to accomplish. Looking down the hilt I can still see all of the patterns that has been carved into it, and the runes carved into the bottom.

Valkyrie.

For Gobber it would have just been another axe. Hiccup however, I know had a crush on me. Not that I care. Every boy around my age does, and all of them will be treated the same way if they try anything, with a fist to the face.

Looking up through the leaves to the sky, I saw that it is nearly noon. Time to head back.

Dragon training begins now.

* * *

Such a strange little creature. I've been watching this one for some time now, throwing this metal claw at the trees. Probably some sort of primal instinct. It seems to be getting angrier and angrier over something. I have heard of some dragons burning a few trees to the ground to calm down, and I've done it myself once or twice, so maybe this Scaleless is doing the same thing.

Hiding in the shadows of a treetop, I noticed it look skyward, so I shifted backward deeper into the darkness and narrowed my eyes so that only a slither of my eyes showed. After searching the sky for something, maybe gauging the time, it turned and began marching to the nesting site. I decided to follow it, obviously there is something going on soon.

Following it silently from the shadows, I watched it as it walked. It seemed to be practicing with its metal claw, slashing at a couple of low hanging branches. The way it observed its surroundings reminded me of a hunter, ever aware of what is going on around it.

Approaching the nesting site, the Scaleless seemed to be heading to the huge area with a metal net covering it, where a few dragons were being held captive. And where the other Dark One was taken.

It better not be planning on hurting him.

I crept away from the nests until I knew that I was far away enough to not be heard, then flew up and skimmed the trees until I was at my previous watching spot looking over the netted area.

Looking over to the bridge I could see the same Scaleless along with four other Scaleless. They were all wielding various forms of metal claws. I could see that two of them were brawling with each other like a pair of Tail-Biters, another looked a bit uncomfortable with its claw, and another looking like its trying to impress the one I was following, who was blatantly ignoring it.

This group wouldn't be able to fight off a Tail-Biter, let alone a Body-Burner. Maybe they are being taught how to fight? A commotion from the stone walled area drew my attention. I had to restrain myself from blasting a head off, as a group of older Scaleless's were forcing everyone into cages.

The dragons had grouped together into a protective circle with the one I changed in the middle. The Scaleless were split into two groups. The first group was encircling everyone, and was working together to split someone away from the group. As I watched, Meatlug was driven away from the group after drifting sideways to avoid injury by thrown claws.

The purpose of the other group became clear as they forced her even further away from the others. They seemed to be directing her retreat. Suddenly it became clear. They were forcing her into one of the cages. She was desperately trying to avoid being caged after being able to enjoy a relative amount of freedom, but had no choice against the onslaught of metal claws. Within moments of being pushed into the cage the doors slammed shut, and the first group began separating someone else from the group. I saw someone snatch Biter out of the air as he tried to distract the one with one arm and leg.

I saw the new Dark One watching what was happening to Meatlug with a nervous intensity. After the cage doors slammed shut in front of her, he turned and said something to the others animatedly. I couldn't hear what he said from this distance, but I could tell that it wasn't something the others had considered from the sideways glances that they gave him.

The Dark One, irritated at the lack of response, began nudging the closest dragon, Hookfang, to move along the wall. Hookfang growled at the smaller dragon, but that just earned him a larger push that forced him to move. From Hookfang's sudden movement, the others jerked a few steps sideways as well, and at the Fury's insistence, continued moving along the wall.

The Scaleless were moving as well, making sure that they were not caught in the dragons path, but still encircling them. The dragons stopped in front of one of the cages. After a brief argument, Barf and Belch backed into the cage, still hissing at the Scaleless.

The remainder continued on their path around the wall to the next cage. As they moved on, a pair of Scaleless rushed to close the doors. Curiously, neither Barf of Belch made any moves to fight them. I would have thought that they would have put up a bit more of a fight to their captors.

Maybe after being a prisoner for so long you lose your will to fight. No, wait! Maybe it was something the Dark One said. Is he, is he smiling? I saw him turn to the others and say something again. His words obviously got through to them this time, as I could see Hookfang calm down and Stormfly's quills flatten down.

The trio of dragons continued along the wall, heading to Hookfang's cage. As the Scaleless closed his cage, he was hissing at his captors, obviously not at all happy with the situation. Stormfly and the Dark One quickly headed to the last cage. As Stormfly entered, the Dark One lingered outside for a moment.

It seemed like he picked out one of the Scaleless in particular, but backed into the cage without a word. As the Scaleless closed the doors, he kept staring at the one that was missing a few limbs.

Once all the cages were shut, most of the Scaleless left, except the misshapen one. As they left, the younger ones that I had seen walking over entered, and the misshapen one shouted something happily to them. Within a minute, Meatlug was released, and began chasing them around the place.

Soon after Meatlug was released, I noticed another cage being unlocked. But instead of the doors being flung open by someone wanting a fight, the door only opened slightly, and a black head poked out of the gap. He seemed to be watching what was going on. I don't think anyone else has noticed him yet. Giving my surrounding another quick scan, I settled in to watch.

This is going to be interesting.

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**AN: I hope I've managed to keep Astrid in character for this chapter. In the next chapter you will see what happens in the arena from Hiccup's perspective. Tell me what you think!**


	8. Day one of a new life

**AN: So sorry that I haven't updated for such a long time. But thanks for all the reviews on the previous chapter. Over 450 views on that chapter! Personal record! Or chapter record, for that matter. Anyway, hope you like this chapter, it's a little bit longer than usual.**

******For those who do not understand how my mind works:**

"Human talking"

'Human thinking'

_"Dragon talking"_

_'Dragon thinking'_

**Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it again?**

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Some things never change. You can have you entire perception of life turned upside down, your guardian becoming the one who holds your life in his hands, your worst enemies becoming your only hope of survival. But some things never change.

Ever since I took my first wobbly steps as a child, I have been mastering the art of tripping over my own legs. As I grew up, it evolved into an all-round clumsiness resulting in a widespread destruction that even dragons are envious of. But now, I have to relearn how to walk. And not only that! I have to use an extra pair of legs now!

Lucky me.

Also, as a result of my clumsiness, nobody really listened to me. I don't know why, its not like I knocked over a building or two! Okay, maybe I did that time. But still, maybe they could have listened when I shot the Night Fury down. I could have shown them all that I, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third… cant kill a dragon. Okay, maybe that wouldn't be such a good thing.

Although, I probably wouldn't have ended up where I am now. But really, I not sure which mess I would rather be in. There is my former mess where everyone expected great things from me, and I had an equal list of 'things I can't possibly do in a million years', and where I was as safe as I could be in a village where there are more weapons than animals. Or my current mess, where I don't have any pressures, but if I do something wrong, I might lose something I value. Like my head.

Out of everything that I wish could have been changed, I would like to be able to walk without expecting to face plant the ground, and for someone to actually listen me when I say something. Such as when I am the only one around who can understand Norse.

The day started off well, I woke up in the most comfortable place. I knew that I wasn't I my bed, that nasty thing tries to kill me more than it comforts me, but I really didn't care. It was really warm and cozy. I only knew what it was when I opened my eye to look. I couldn't see much at first, there was just a massive blue haze around me. As my vision cleared, I managed to pick out some features of the haze.

NADDER!

I had been sleeping on a Deadly Nadder. Lifting myself off of it using all fours, I tried to crawl away from it without waking it. Getting a safe distance away from it, I stood up and started to tip-toe away from it before it could notice me. At least, that was the plan, until my natural clumsiness betrayed me.

With a loud thud, I landed on my back with my limbs sprawled in the air. As I lay there, the events of the last few days came back to me.

_"This is going to take some getting used to" _I grumbled from my position on the floor.

A blue head appeared to my side _"What, lying on your back like an Tail-Biter?"_ Stormfly teased.

"No, waking up as a dragon." I replied _"And it is actually fairly comfortable down here, you should try it more often"_

_"Whatever" _She snorted. As she started to walk off to one of the other dragons, I span to my feet and tackled her legs. With a screech, she fell over and landed in the same position I was a few moments ago.

_"See. Comfy isn't it?" _I tried to avoid sounding smug. Judging by the look she's giving me, I think I failed with that. Within moments, I found myself looking to the sky again as she used her tail to knock me onto my back again.

That is where Meatlug found us, lying on our backs next to each other, laughing for no apparent reason. We would laugh for a while, slow down to a stop, look at the other, and burst into laughter again. _"I hate to interrupt your flirting, but I…"_

Simultaneously, our eyes widened, and we shot to our feet. Meatlug didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as she found herself on her own backside as we had been.

_"Say that again!" _Stormfly challenged.

Meatlug refused to rise to the bait, simply rolling her eyes at us. Getting back to her feet, she continued _"Anyway, I was wondering if you, Hiccup, could tell me about all these metal claws the Scaleless use"._ She gestured to the weapons rack by a wall.

_"Sure, no problem. I made most of them myself" _I said with a hint of pride as I made my way over to them. When I reached it, I grabbed the hammer with my mouth after retracting my teeth (I spent at least an hour constantly retracting my teeth last night. It's a novelty thing) and lifted it with a surprising ease.

I lifted it so easily, I accidentally threw it somewhere behind me as I lost my grip on it. Turning around, I saw it had landed by Hookfang's face. Hearing the thud as it hit the ground had obviously woken him up, and seeing the weapon so close to his face caused him to ignite and snarl at the offender.

In short, he was trying to intimidate a hammer lying on the floor.

_"Sorry. My bad." _I apologised

_"What was you doing with the metal claw?" _He asked, finally getting over the shock of being woke by an inanimate object.

_"He was going to tell us more about the metal claws" _Meatlug said as she hovered over to him. _"So, what do they call this one?"_

_"This is called a hammer" _I answered

_"Hmmm. A Hammer-claw"_

_"Erm, yes. They are a lot heavier than the other weapons, so the people who use them tend to be stronger than usual. They are slow to hit with compared to other weapons, but they can easily break bones if they hit you, and…" _At first I felt a little uneasy telling the dragons about human weapons, but seeing the plain wonder on Meatlug's face made me continue. Besides, its not like it'll make any difference in the way they fight.

I think.

I was just starting to tell them what a spear was when I picked up a scent that I recognised. Gobber must be nearby. Scanning the area, I only just noticed him vanish in the direction of the village. Thinking nothing of it, I continued with telling the others how 'a piece of metal on a stick' worked as a weapon.

Gobber's return was a lot more noticeable. To be honest, it is pretty hard to sneak a small army around. I would have thought that someone would of noticed them heading to the arena. Unfortunately, they were only spotted when they actually got inside. Between the complaints and cursing of the dragons around me, I couldn't work out what Gobber was telling his fellow Vikings.

The Vikings surged forward, trapping everyone against the wall. Biter tried to fly out of the entrapment, but got caught by a bola and was wrestled away. The Vikings got close enough that no others could fly off without exposing themselves to considerable harm.

Crushed against the wall, I couldn't see much of what was happening, and I could only hear the cursing from both sides and Meatlug mumbling something about _"Hammer-claws"_ and _"Spear-claws"_.

A volley of thrown spears pushed Meatlug off to the side, one of them bouncing off the wall inches in front of my nose. As I watched, another group of Vikings separated her even further from us. Meatlug tried to fight back, but her lava shots were wasted on shields and when she tried ramming one of them she was forced to back up by a few well placed hammer blows.

Dazed, she tried to stay away from as many of them as possible, but was constantly having to move as one group in particular edged closer to her. Soon, she had been pushed a full quarter of the way around the wall. Suddenly, the group directly in front of her surged forward, pushing her back to the wall, except, there wasn't a wall, it was the entrance to one of the cages. Noticing this, Meatlug launched a desperate attempt to escape, but was beaten back mercilessly.

Only when the Vikings had closed and locked the cage after her did I realise what was going on. Dragon training is meant to start today, and putting a bunch of newbie's in a cage full of dragons is a definite recipe for disaster. I should know, I made most of them myself.

Turning to the others, I tried to get their attention. _"Hey guys, Guys. Hey, down here!"_ Why now? Does everyone have selective hearing around me? _"They won't hurt you if you don't fight them!"_ I hissed. Not even an eye twitched.

I started nudging them and repeated the message. This time they heard me, but only to give me dubious looks from the corner of their eyes. _"Trust me, if we all get in the cages they will not hurt us. They only want to put us back in the cages."_

This time I could tell that they heard me. They just ignored everything I said. By now, everyone had wasted their remaining shots destroying the Vikings shields. I could see a couple lying on the floor too damaged to be any use, and one Viking that I'm sure had hair a few minutes ago.

_"Come on, the only way to see if I'm right or not is to try it." _I set myself, and when I felt ready to, I rammed Hookfang's leg. Despite my overwhelming clumsiness, I had managed to put enough force into it to knock him slightly off balance. He took a small step sideways, so I started pushing him again.

_"Keep going, if they want us dead they would have killed us already, or Meatlug"_

At my insistence, they continued along the wall slowly until they came to a cage. I recognised it as the Zipplebacks.

_"Barf, Belch. This one's yours."_

One of the heads turned to face me (I'm still not sure which one) and narrowed it's eyes _"We are not going back into this filthy thing, we do not wish to be stuck in this place again."_

_"I know. But its not like we are going to be allowed to stay out here either." _I soothed.

_"You have not had to live in one of these confining things before. You do not know how bad it is" _They hissed.

_"I'm going to find out soon enough, so just get in that cage!" _I hissed back _"I promise you they will not hurt you if they do. I know them, I know what they will do. Please, just trust me with this"_

Grumbling, the Zippleback backed into its cage slowly. When they were inside, I urged the remainder of us to move on to the next cage, Hookfang's. As we backed along the wall, I kept an eye on the Zippleback cage. As I though, two Vikings came when we were a safe distance away and shut the doors without considering going in for a fight. Fortunately Barf and Belch decided not to launch a last moment attack before the doors closed.

At this point, I couldn't stop a grin from forming, so when I turned to face Hookfang and Stormfly, I had to exert myself to restrain my sarcastic, condescending side. _"See, they won't hurt us if we don't try to fight them. At least not this time. They just want us out of the way for some reason."_

As I talked, I noticed their stiff aggressive postures relax somewhat, and when we reached Hookfang's cage, he entered without too much of a show. Finally, it was me and Stormfly. Upon arrival at the final cage, I realised that we would have to share it as there were no other cages left.

Gesturing for Stormfly to enter first, I stayed outside for a moment. I needed to try something. Scanning the crowd, I picked out Gobber's hulking form in seconds. Staring at him until I was sure I had caught his eye, I raised and lowered my head in a deliberate imitation of a human nod before backing into the cage. Hopefully he would get the message.

As the doors closed, all light vanished from the cage. I could hear Stormfly pacing the cage behind me (all of two steps) as the locking bar lowered outside. When I heard the dull thump that signified that we were locked in, I began searching the walls and floor by the doors.

Stormfly obviously noticed that I was acting somewhat strangely, even for a dragon, and asked _"Hiccup, what are you doing? You won't be able to dig though the floor, it's solid rock. I've tried everything, nothing works"_

_"I'm not trying to dig anything, I'm looking for a small lever" _I replied distractedly

A few moments passed as I continued my search. _"What's a 'lever'?"_ She asked, curiosity getting the better of her. I heard a few dull thumps outside.

I paused my search to think of a way to explain it to her in a way she could understand._ "It's a small metal stick poking out of the wall. Do you know where it is in here?"_ I asked.

_"Oh, that. It's on the other side. Wait a moment. Here you go."_

I shied away from her as she spat a stream of flames at the ceiling, the brightness nearly blinding me for a couple of seconds. My ears twitched as they picked up some more strange noises from outside. As my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, I spotted what I was looking for.

The emergency escape.

A small lever designed for the unlucky person who somehow manages to lock himself in a cage with a dragon. Something that no dragon would be able to use to escape, except me.

In the dim light, I could see the simple safety catch for the lever and easily flipped it off. I pushed the lever down slowly, and as it reached the bottom I heard the locking bar slowly being raised. I knew that Stormfly would quite happily rush out, by I had my suspicions on what was happening outside.

_"Stormfly, wait here for a moment please. I want to peek out first to see what's going on."_

In the dimming light, I could see her eagerness to get out as quickly as she could, but she also knew that I was her only chance of getting out, so she did what I asked.

I used my head to push the door open slightly, just enough for me to fit my head through to look about, and what I saw stunned me.

Meatlug, pinning a defenceless Astrid to the wall mere metres in front of me, fury in her eyes and a brightening glow at the back of her throat.

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**AN: Woohoo! Cliffhanger! Haha, bet you never saw that coming. Have a guess what'll happen. Review!**


	9. Shieldmaiden vs Grunckle

**AN: Hey guys, sorry but I wont be able to update as often as i used to. I wish that I could but I'm finding I have a lot less time than I wanted to write. Anyway, here is chapter 9, Astrid style.**

******For those who do not understand how my mind works:**

"Human talking"

'Human thinking'

_"Dragon talking"_

_'Dragon thinking'_

**Disclaimer: **Umm...What?

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"Welcome ta Dragon Trainin'!"

Walking into the Arena, I could hear the gasps of awe from my colleagues, who had followed me in. Hefting my axe, I turned to look at their stunned faces, then continued it into a full circle.

To be honest, I can understand their reactions. I feel it too. I'm just too much of a true warrior to let it show in front of them. None of us have ever been in the Kill Ring before. I have seen inside it watching others train against dragons when I was younger, but the sheer scale of this place is lost upon you from the stands.

I haven't seen it, but I once heard that Chief Stoick once killed a Timberjack dragon in here, one of the largest known dragons. I can see now why it took the chief so long to kill it. It must have put up one strong fight in here. Blast marks are littered all over the walls, some the round craters of a Grunckle, some the scorch marks of a Nadder and other dragons.

I can see debris of the last time this place was used, a few burnt out weapons and shattered shields. Vikings have never really cared about cleanliness, especially when beheading a dragon. Snotlout's a good example of that… Urgh. Just the thought of his hygiene routine (or lack of) makes me want to heave. Looking up, the network of strong metal chains forming a meshwork top to this oversized cage really brings the reality here.

This is where I will kill my first dragon.

I made sure to be the first to walk in for a reason. First in, last out. That will be my motto for dragon training. First to wade into the action, last to be knocked out. That will be the only way to prove myself to be the best dragon killer of our age group, and the only way to restore the Hofferson name.

"I'm hoping for some serious burns!" That would be Tuffnut. Possibly the only Viking in the world who would go our of his way to get injured by a dragon.

"I'm looking for some mauling, like, shoulder or lower back" And that's Ruffnut. The other Viking who apparently would want to get injured. And also conveniently Tuffnut's twin. Lunatics, the pair of them.

"Yeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it" I said. In Berk, a battle scar is a symbol of pride. It shows your mightiest battles and what it took to win them. But getting mauled? Not so much a battle scar as an I-did-something-stupid-and-only-just-survived-it scar.

"Don't worry babe, I'll make sure those nasty dragons don't hurt you" Snotlout and his brash overconfidence again, with his nasty stench and wiggly eyebrows. Up till now, I was in a fairly good mood about this. Now, not so much. But there is one sure-fire way of reviving it. Punching Snotlout in the face for his retarded attempt at flirting of course.

Before I could reject Snotlout for the billionth and third time, Gobber got us to line up in the centre of the arena, facing the dragon pens."These are the dragons that yer goin' ta fight!" He exclaimed happily.

"The Deadly Nadder" Gobber started as he walked in front of the cages.

At the other end of the line, Fishlegs spoke up in his excitement. "Speed: 8, armour: 16" Trust Fishlegs to translate everything into numbers.

"The Hideous Zippleback" Gobber waved his prosthetic hook at the Zippleback's door.

"Plus 11 stealth times two"

"The Monstrous Nightmare"

"Firepower 15!" Ok, this is starting to get a little irritating now.

"The Terrible Terror!"

"Attack 8! Venom 12!" Fishlegs was almost shouting from his eagerness.

Evidently it wasn't just me who was finding this irritating, as Gobber shouted "Will ye stop that!" Fishleg's mouth shut with an audible _click!_. Gobber rolled his eyes at the boy.

"And the Grunckle" He finished, leaning on the wall next to the Grunckle's cage, his hand resting all too casually on the lever. Setting myself to run at any moment, I almost missed Fishlegs whispering another useless fact down the line.

"Jaw strength 8" What the heck does that mean? How can knowing that the Grunckle has a jaw strength of 8 - whatever that means - help me fight it? Doesn't matter now, Snotlout's only just realised that Gobber is leaning quite heavily on that lever.

"Whoa, aren't you going to teach us first?" Snotlout actually sounded worried. I must say I am surprised about that. But then again, he might just be worried about his - urgh - beautiful face.

"I believe in learning on the job" I could hear the poorly restrained laughter in his voice. Gobber then pushed the lever down, letting the Grunckle out.

I rolled to the side as the dragon flew over us, I found myself in a good position to see everyone else scatter and the Grunckle face plant a wall. Gobber apparently thought that now would be a good time to start his lessons. "Quick! What's the first thing you're goin' ta need?"

"Plus five speed?" Fishlegs had practically frozen in the middle of the arena, watching the dragon eat the rocks it needed to fuel its lava blasts.

"A weapon?" Snotlout asked, holding his mace between him and the dragon like a talisman of safety. Personally, I wouldn't complain if the dragon took a shot at him.

I decided that I would be better off keeping everyone else alive during training, after all, I will need backup when killing dragons for real, and this group will probably be the best team I get. "A shield!" I shouted.

"Correct! If you have a choice between a sword and a shield, take the shield." Gobber replied. Everyone dove for a shield. Except me, I had already picked one up.

The dragon by now had started chomping on a second pile of rocks, and was now scanning the arena for a target. Its attention was immediately brought to the centre of the arena, where Ruffnut and Tuffnut were fighting over a shield.

"It's my shield, I got it first!" Ruffnut was saying.

"Did not! I was here first." argued Tuffnut.

"Did too! This is my flaming shield!" Trust the twins to get into a fight over the pictures on the shield.

"Hey look, there's a shield with flowers on it. Girls like flowers."

Even I felt miffed about Tuffnut's sexist comment, but there was something more immediate to deal with. The dragon was bearing down on them, intent on ramming them both unconscious.

"Ruff, Tuff, get down!" I shouted, and started running to get the first hit on the dragon.

Perfectly timed, the twins rolled to the ground while the dragon flew over them. In perfect sync, they continued the roll back onto their feet, and Ruffnut smacked their shield over her brothers head.

"Oops, now this one has blood on it" She taunted. I sighed in disbelief. They hadn't noticed the dragon even when it was on top of them, Ruffnut simply rolled the pair of them to rip the shield out of her brothers hands. Do they want to die? Tuffnut grabbed the shield while his sister was taunting him with it and they returned to their tug-of-war with the dragon hovering mere metres away from them. Ok, forget my earlier question.

The dragon, looking annoyed that it was evaded so easily turned around, and on spotting the twins again spat a ball of lava at them. The twins dumb luck was in their favour again as the shield was in the perfect position to block the unnoticed attack. The shield was blasted out of both of their hands while they were spun to the floor from the power of the attack.

"Ruffnut, Tuffnut, you're out" Gobber shouted from the far wall, unconcerned. The twins scrambled to their feet and ran towards the big man.

I, however, was determined to not let the Grunckle have another chance to attack them, and put on a burst of speed and my best Viking war cry. The Grunckle turned to face me, and as it did so I heard a cry of surprise and saw a pair of feet appear by the dragon's tail. It looked like Snotlout had tried to sneak up on the dragon, and got smacked down when it span around, still oblivious to him.

As I approached, it opened its mouth and I saw a faint glow in the back of its throat getting brighter. Knowing what was coming, I stopped and dove to the side. A fireball exploded where I stood a moment ago, the heat warming my legs as I got to safety.

"Remember, make lots and lots of noise. It throws off a dragon's aim" Gobber advised. Snotlout and Fishlegs joined me in bashing our weapons and shields together, which had an immediate effect, as the dragon was struggling to stay aloft, and was shaking its head wildly. Fishlegs ran to get behind the dragon, probably the best idea I thought. Snotlout came to stand next to me and started making stupid comments about himself again. Why can't he pay attention to something other than me? Like the dragon?

I saw Fishlegs hiding in the dragons blind spot to get within striking distance with his hammer, so I started shouting random insults at the dragon to keep its attention. I started making feints as well, as if I was about to charge the creature. Snotlout simply stood beside me, flirting (or so he thought). It was working, the dragon was completely unaware of Fishlegs approach. That is, until Gobber intervened.

"What's the shot limit of a Grunckle?" he asked.

"Five?" Snotlout hazarded a guess.

"No, Six!" Fishlegs shouted, holding his hammer aloft behind the dragon. If I was close enough, I would have slapped him for giving away the element of surprise like he did. The dragon, noticing the closer danger, span around. Due to Fishlegs close proximity, the dragon knocked him down to the ground. Snotlout took the opportunity to charge the dragon.

Lying on the floor, I saw Fishlegs swing his shield in front of the dragons mouth just in time for it to be blasted to smithereens. The dragon then gained altitude suddenly, and rose above Snotlout's heavy-handed swing.

The miss caught Snotlout off guard, and he stumbled, off balance. He kept running, however, and sped full tilt into Fishlegs prone body. Snotlout's face met floor with a crunch, and Fishlegs had to grab Snotlout's shield arm to avoid being caught by another lava blast.

Before it could use another of its shots on them, I bashed my axe and shield together to make some noise, and ran in front of the dragon. The dragon took the bait, and started flying after me. I sped on towards one of the walls with it close behind me. Moments before running face first into the wall, I dropped to the floor, and the dragon skimmed my head before speeding into the wall.

Dazed, the Grunckle tried to turn around to face me, but it was moving a lot slower than usual. Taking advantage of the situation, I quickly got up and bashed its head with the edge of my shield, then swung at its neck with my axe.

The dragon, though, after being hit with the shield, sideslipped the axe blow. Off balance, I didn't have enough time to react as it shot a fireball at my shieldless flank. The brunt of the attack caught my axe, which was ripped out of my hands in a blink. The force of the impact spun me around, and I felt my head hit something hard.

Blinking rapidly to clear my suddenly blurry vision, all I could see was the creatures gaping mouth, the jagged teeth framing it, and the glow of its final fireball building up at the back of its throat.

Then everything went black.

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**AN: Ha. Cliffhanger... Review**


	10. Rejection

**AN: So here comes chapter 10, with the awaited answer to the cliffhanger. I present to you... Rejection!**

**Disclaimer: I recently bought the word 'disclaimer' on ebay. Ha**

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This can't be happening. This was never supposed to happen. No. She can't die, she can't die. She's too stubborn to die like this, she's too strong to die. This can't be happening. I wont let her die.

Even if she doesn't recognise me any more.

_"DON'T HURT HER!"_

Every muscle devoted itself to throwing my body mass towards the pair as the shout tore itself from my throat. I rammed Meatlug with my full strength, causing the lava shot she had built up to discharge into the wall mere inches away from Astrid's head. The impact hurt. A lot. But I was prepared for it, while Meatlug wasn't. The impact knocked her onto her side, dazed.

I shook my head to dispel the dizziness, and positioned myself between the dragon and the warrior. I noticed that Gobber had frozen in mid hobble-sprint, somehow balancing on his peg leg, slack jawed and blinking rapidly. When I made eye contact with him, as if he broke out of a trance, he wobbled and crashed down to the floor. As Gobber faceplanted the floor, Meatlug rolled back onto her feet with a blaze in her eyes.

_"Don't. Hurt. Her."_ I said, calmly but firmly, desperate to avoid backing down from the angry Grunckle. I had to remind myself that I can actually survive a fight with a dragon now. Maybe not win said fight but definitely survive it.

_"What are you doing?! I had the perfect opportunity to kill that thing!" _She shouted.

_"That 'thing' doesn't deserve to be killed"_ I tried to reason.

_"It tried to attack me first, so it's fair game." _She snorted. I looked at her incredulously.

_"Fair game? Is that how you view us? Fair game? Let me tell you something, that is exactly how Vikings view you dragons!"_ I retorted.

_"Ha! That proves it! They don't recognise our society, our castes, our customs. They aren't **able** to understand any of our ways" _She growled darkly.

_"Think about it, what do they see? You come at night, killing people, stealing food and making chaos. The only thing they can see is a fire-breathing monster. What would you expect them to see?"_

_"They have never tried to understand us, they ju-"_

_"Just as you have never tried to understand how Vikings think" _I interrupted _"It works both ways, and I seem to be the only one who understands this" _I finished darkly.

With a growl, she turned and stormed back into her cage. Once I was sure that she wouldn't be trying to hurt Astrid again, I relaxed a little and turned to face her. It surprised me to find her looking so vulnerable. She had curled herself into a ball, covering her head with her arms. I could hear her breathing rapidly and shakily. As I turned to face her properly, I accidentally breathed on her, ruffling her hair. She flinched and looked up.

I don't think she was expecting to she me so close, as she jerked her head backwards, smacking it against the wall. She stared at me wide eyed for a moment, her hands scrabbling around the floor as if searching for something. I backed up a little when I realised that she was searching for a weapon. I knew I should have expected that sort of reaction from her, but it still hurts that nobody trusts me.

When I moved back, she stopped her searching and looked at me strangely. Probably can't believe I'm not about to rip her head off. She stood up slowly, keeping herself pressed up against the wall. I crooned gently and took half a step towards her, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible.

"Get back" She spoke breathlessly, looking scared out of her mind. The words brought a sharp pang in my heart, but I still took the required step backwards, checking quickly that nobody was trying to sneak up on me. Satisfied that nobody was close enough to strike at me, I turned my attention back to Astrid. She didn't seem to be as afraid as before, so I repeated my earlier croon.

The reaction was not the one I wanted.

"This can't be happening" She breathed, before taking off for the exit. I would have happily gone after her, but Gobber quickly planted himself between myself and her rapidly retreating form. I saw the other trainees running after her, but Gobber was making sure I couldn't follow them outside.

"You ain't going anywhere, dragon."

_"Astrid, wait! I can explain…sort of" _I called after her.

I tried to push Gobber out of my way to give chase to Astrid, but he tackled me and pushed my head into the ground. I grunted in protest, and tried to wiggle out of his grasp. I couldn't worm my way out of his hold, he had the advantage of experience. And weight. It's hard to move when someone is practically sitting on your head.

I didn't give up though, the thought of Astrid abandoning me is too much to bear. I just changed tactics. Instead of trying to push away from the Viking, I started to push into him. The unexpected change obviously caught him off guard, as I managed to knock him down to the floor.

When he hit the ground his grip around my neck loosened. With a bit of effort, I twisted out of his grip and ran for the exit. Before I had made three steps, something tangled itself around my legs and dumped me on the floor. Groaning, I twisted to see what had happened.

I immediately recognised the vines and rocks as a bola, one of my special ones in fact. Stronger than the average bola and a thicker net to completely entrap the victim. The victim here being my back legs. Reaching down, I tried to use my claws to saw through the vines. I paused in my work when a shadow fell over me. I twisted to look at who it was and saw Gobber's silhouette with another bola twirling in his hand.

_"Hey" _I grunted, and resumed with sawing through the bola. I heard a small _clack_ behind me, and turned to see what made it out of curiosity. The bola that Gobber was holding was dangling from his hand, the rocks tapping each other from their previous momentum.

"What are you?" I cocked my head at that question to indicate confusion. "You act like a dragon, then you act like a Hiccup, then you do something that doesn't match either. What are you?"

I rolled my eyes _"That's me. One of a kind!"_ I said, forgetting he couldn't understand me. I returned to sawing through the vines.

"You have to be either the dumbest dragon I've seen…" I poked my tongue at him for that. "…or still be the crazy Hiccup I knew." I gave him a firm nod.

"You can't fight, you make stupid mistakes like turning your back to a potential enemy, you walk like a cripple." He continued "And you still haven't realised that it would be easier to chew through that bola." I glared at him during his little speech before reluctantly curling down to chew at the vines.

I have always been hesitant with putting stuff in my mouth due to the traditional Viking hygiene standards, and knowing that Gobber has put his grimy hands all over them was nearly enough to repel the thought. But I really would like to have feeling back in those legs.

Chewing on the vines, I felt them break in a matter of moments, and immediately tried to move my legs. When I felt ready, I rolled back to my feet, stumbling for a moment as my circulation returned. I immediately turned and walk over to where there was a small pile of sand on the floor by the wall. I used a paw to spread it out a little and started to write a few clumsy runes.

YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED

I looked up at Gobber, who had kept himself between me and the exit, to see how he would react.

"I know what happened" He started carefully "But I don't know whether Hiccup still exists"

I knew that that was the best I could expect from him, so I smoothed out the sand to write a little extra.

I AM WHO I AM

I gave him a few moments to read it before rubbing it away again.

NOT WHAT I AM

He looked at me strangely for a few moments before finding his voice. "Then I will have to find out who you are"

He walked back wards to the exit, I did not follow him. When he reached the portcullis lever, he spoke again.

"Dragon training begins tomorrow" He rested his hand on the lever "It'll be your turn next"

The portcullis slammed shut.

* * *

**AN: So how do you think this should go? How badly should he get beat up? How will Astrid be? Muah haha ha ha...**


	11. Preparing for a pounding

**AN: So close to the landmark 100 follows. And nearly 100 reviews too! So glad everyone seemed to love the last chapter and it's cliffhanger. I would have put this up earlier but for some reason I couldn't put a new chapter up until now. The fight will not be in this chapter, this one is just setting the scene for it. I hope I've done it well. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own How to train your dragon.**

**Wow, I actually did it normally for once. What is the world coming to?!**

* * *

What?

Did he…did he just say what I think he did? Dragon training?

Oh, crud, I'm doomed. Goodbye cruel world, it's been nice knowing you. Well, not really, its been a living Helheim since mum left. Maybe I can scare everyone off with my incredible manly vikingness… I'm doomed.

It would be a lot nicer knowing that I could put up a fight, but with me there is a difference between being having the capability to put up a fight and actually being able to fight. I'm at the more pain filled end of that divide.

And Gobber's decided to lock me in with a bunch of rowdy teenagers that wield a variety of deadly weapons. Anyone else share my optimism?

I started pacing around, trying to think of something that could help. Wait, I know! I could release all the other dragons, stage an escape with them and fly off to live somewhere else. Great! Except… I can't fly.

Whoopee.

Maybe they can teach me how to fly? We're stuck in a cage, not a chance of flying in here. Guess I will have to learn to fight then. I shook my head at that thought. Learn to fight? I am the most single-handedly destructive clumsy Viking that ever lived. I have managed to cut myself with a hammer, knock myself out with an arrow head and slice myself by looking at a particularly sharp sword!

Well, I used to be. Not so sure now but I don't feel any safer not being able to wield any of the usual weapons. Instead, all of my weapons have come pre-built with my new body. A variety of miniature swords on all of my feet, a thick bludgeon at the base of my spine, teeth sharper than arrows and a flamethrower in my throat.

And I have no idea what to do with any of it.

A series of faint thuds from the wall near my broke me out of my thoughts _"Hey, you gonna let me out now or what?"_ Stormfly's muffled voice came through.

That's an idea. I might not know how to defend myself, but I do know some who do. Hopefully they can take pity on me and teach me how to defend myself. Although I'd rather skip the pity and get on with the defending.

Some louder thumps from the cage door indicated that the she-dragon was getting impatient.

_"I'm coming, I'm coming. Don't get your undies in a twist." _I called out to her.

The knocking stopped. _"I don't know what you mean by 'undies', but I hope I don't have them whatever they are."_

I mentally faceplanted myself before dropping the lever to open the cage doors. As soon as the locking bar had risen high enough to let the doors open, Stormfly leapt out and roared a challenge.

_"Come on! Bring it on you filthy little… huh, no humans."_

She looked confused for a moment as she scanned the arena, the scents of people with weapons conflicting with the sight of an empty arena. That is, empty except for me, desperately trying to avoid laughing at her actions. After she did a complete circle as if she was chasing her tail, I didn't try to hold it in. Bursting into laughter, I collapsed into a heap by the lever.

_"Sorry. You just… tried to scare them… but there's nobody here!" _I spat out when I wasn't laughing.

Alas, I had forgotten one of the few wise things my father had told me: Never annoy a woman, lad, or beware her wrath!

Stormfly's tail spines snapped open, and she started glaring at me. I shot to my feet and started backing away from her while she stormed closer.

_"Ok, ok! You are scary! I take everything back, including what I haven't said yet!" _That didn't seem to appease her, so I decided to leg it around the arena, laughing and apologising for the laughter not entirely sincerely.

She started building up to running, tail lashing around wildly. She looked decidedly scary, I decided after glancing back a few times. Especially while launching deadly toxic projectiles at your face. Huh? Jumping to avoid the barrage of spines, I looked forward to find myself in a collision course with the wall.

_"Wah!" _It felt like time slowed down for a few moments as the wall drew closer. I reached out to try and lessen the impact with my front legs, then felt myself rotating in the air as I somehow pushed myself along the wall. As the first of the needles struck the wall below me, my back legs met the wall, and pushed off again immediately, somehow managing to jump off the wall. Time resumed its normal speed as I sped along the ground again.

_"I did not know I could do that!" _I shouted over my shoulder. _"I did not expect that to happen!"_ True to my nature, I decided to try to do it again. Do something once, see if you can do it again, that's the principle I worked on while building my variety of contraptions.

Its not my fault none of them worked.

Forgetting for a moment that so far none of my wild ideas has ever worked before (the bola launcher that caught the Night Fury doesn't count, I couldn't follow through with its results), I threw myself at the wall again and tried to twist my body like what happened the first time.

Safe to say that not much happened, except for my side scraping along the wall and me landing on a pile of shields. "_Owowowowow. That hurt. Just a little bit."_ I complained as I rolled back to my feet, a turned to see Stormfly's tail inches from my nose, spines still extended.

_"Um, your not still mad about earlier are you?" _I asked, not looking away from her tail.

She didn't respond at first, or move. Then she tapped my nose gently with the tip of her tail and said _"Tag!"_ before vanishing from my sight. I groaned at her apparent playfulness and stretched to relieve the muscles I landed on.

_"I don't have time for this Stormfly." _I called after her _"Actually, I need your help for now"_

She refused to drop her aggressively playful demeanour, and flew up to hang upside down from the chain roof._ "Why? What happened? Is the world going to end tomorrow?"_ She asked teasingly.

_"Yes. It is." _I deadpanned.

_"All the more reason to enjoy yourself while you can." _She cackled.

I settled down on the floor, curling up to rest my head on my tail. _"Well, your world might not end tomorrow but mine will."_

_"Ok, spill it. What's the big sulks about? Lemme guess, your going to be attacked by a bunch of rowdy kids with their metal claws." _She finished sarcastically.

_"Thank you for summing it up" _I returned dryly.

_"My pleasure." _I smirked a little as I watched her eyes slowly widen as she registered what had just been said. When she did, she smoothly dropped to the floor and landed in a predatory crouch. _"What did you just say? Is that really going to happen? Explain. Now."_

Overly playful terror gone? Check.

Overly protective mother figure looming over me? Check.

I began explaining everything that had happened while she got locked in the cage, from saving Astrid, to the skirmish with Gobber and ending with his pronouncement of impending doom. _"…so I need you to help me learn to fight, or at least hold them off so I don't die."_ I finished my tale of woe with a shrug.

For a couple of long moments we stared at each other, neither of us moving a muscle. After a rather tense wait, she started blinking rapidly and made as if to speak, but cut herself off at the last moment.

_"I am going to pretend that you never said any of that and I'll teach you how to fight. How about that?" _Expressionless, she turned away and walked over to a wall.

'She's taking this incredibly well. I expected laughter or outright denial, not simple acceptance' I thought. I started moving over to her, but stopped as she bought her tail as far around a she could and spat a burning stream of bright fire at the tip. She yelped, and waved it around before facing me, mumbling something that sounded strangely like _'So I didn't dream all of that'_.

_"So what comes first?" _I questioned

_"First we need to work on your stance. Rule number one says that you must keep your balance at all times. Keep your weight evenly balanced so that you are prepared to move at a moments notice." _I stepped into the centre of the arena and got into what I thought of as a suitable fighting stance, while she circled me like a hawk. As she walked around me she nudged my limbs, moving them into a better position until she was happy with my posture.

After a little while, she brought the others out to help me learn how to dodge (mainly involving shooting me with fire until I learnt how to get out of the way), how to use my ears to locate the others and evade their attacks (getting hit more often than not) and how to use my wings for basic combat manoeuvres (jumping over a sleeping Grunckle).

And after a pain-filled excuse for a day and a nightmare filled night, where I had my head handed to me multiple times, the fateful day arrived.

* * *

Waking up early, I started practicing the best of my newfound skills. Namely, running away in a panic. Before long, my exertions woke Stormfly up.

_"Don't wear yourself out to early. You'll never be able to fight back if you tire yourself out now." _She mumbled while stretching.

I stopped my running, but immediately fell into my nervous pacing. _"I'm not so bothered about fighting back as I am about __**surviving**__"_

_"Well, just remember what we did yesterday and you'll be fine. It's not like any of them know what they're doing either according to Meatlug."_

Granted, Meatlug was right about that, except in Astrid's case. She definitely knows what she is doing with that axe of hers. But any of them could get a good hit in which could do seriously damage me. And I would like to avoid being mounted in the Mead Hall anytime soon.

All too soon, Gobber arrived with the training group in tow._ "Stormfly, get back into the cage, but don't let the door shut properly. It'll stop it from locking shut. Keep an eye on me in case anything goes wrong. Please."_

As I turned to face the group again, all I could see was Snotlout's expectant grin. The same grin that had always promised me pain throughout my life.

* * *

**AN: First things first, the burning the tail thing was meant to be an equivalent to pinching yourself because you thought you was dreaming, and I doubt that dragons can pinch themselves. And the wall jump thing was just because I was bored. So whose P.O.V should the next chapter be in? I'm thinking either Hiccup, Astrid or Fishlegs. I'm also considering giving Hiccup a human friend out of one of the gang soon. Either Astrid or Fishlegs first I'm thinking.**

**Either way, tell me what you think!**

**And do you still want me to hurt Hiccup?**


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